random wrote:To me virtue signalling is when someone loudly shouts about something without actually doing anything about it. Like when everyone blathers on about supporting the troops and yet somehow that never translates into decent medical care for disabled veterans, or mental health care to help the hordes of veterans that can't function after going to war and end up on the streets, or decent pensions and other benefits.

You misunderstand, we support troops, not vets. The more people muster out, the fewer troops we have, so why would we ever incentivize it?
Let's send them care packages, like African children, they are already stuck in the middle of the desert, so what's the big difference? Let's keep them in war zones, where their inability to sleep is a valuable skill instead of a disorder. But once they are not fit for duty, what use are they to us- let them commit suicides, it will save everyone money in the long run.

P.S. Err... that got a little dark there. But basically true.

I understand you got satirical there but still lemme respond as if serious mkay

We actually have troops around us, every day, in a sort of potential warzone. They are the police force. They deal with a completely different world than us even if we are in the same local area. We have enough incentive to support them because each of them work in a district/city/nation/whatever with a productive economy, that productive economy in turn produces a cut of taxes that turn into health benefits and pension for them.
Troops sent out to modern war today is like they are policing that particular warzone, but war is a huge cash sink for us, with very little payout. Why do we do it? It seems to me that we are slowly attempting to conquer the world (with the collusion of some other world superpowers), and that , that is a push for globalization, a one world government, etc. As the nation in the world with the most powerful military if you believe that stuff is true it should be obvious the US is the key military component to that plan mkay

So why are our vets not taken care of? Why is the VA a corrupt and messed up system? Instead of being an individual nation with individual rights we are slowly being transformed into the police HQ district of the world, except many of the places we are policing are not actually producing a great economy/ return in investment to support those vets at the moment. In fact we destabilize them, so that we can divide and conquer. We either go into the red a bit by helping vets from our own pocket for now or just callously ignore them, as you satirically suggested.

But that would be wrong, and not only wrong but put off anyone with a brain in the generations afterward from actually enlisting. Only lower IQ troops will enlist voluntarily, because someone with a higher IQ will figure out , wait, if I get hurt or have PTSD this military will not help me out D: And in turn that makes the situation take longer to stabilize again because the lower IQ troops will make stupid mistakes.

In the long run, doing the decent thing actually saves us money in the long run. It could potentially produce so much wealth apart from money in natural resources, human resources, technology, brain power, etc. that in the generations forward a lot of problems won't be an issue anymore.

But we probably won't do that, because so many of us are stupid, and get to the top of the ladder by not playing fair. So many of us have callous attitudes in a serious way, not the satirical make fun way you were using, because they are out of touch with real people and the real world. This could potentially lead us down to an endless spiral of endless war, because when people are not being treated decently enough they will always fight for freedom and better things.

Also, there is so much more that can be done for african children than send them care packages once in a while. Start businesses in actual africa. We have greenhouses, there are plants such as the breadfruit that grow in the desert already. 3 generations ago South Africa (a nation in africa, the continent) had 100x less population than it did now, but the dutch settlers in africa built the biggest hospital in the world, there, in south africa. It lowered the infant mortality rate, as a result millions of people were born in the next 3 generations.

When you think of starving people, or suffering people from now on don't just give them a crust of bread or a dollar every week. Do that and think of how you can get them farms, give them hospitals, give them jobs, education, better technology. Think really really big.

All I can do is write to try to help spread those ideas but you, and some of you on the forums are really fucking smart, probably have access to your youth, probably have education in science, engineering, business, law, whatever, you can actually do a little something more solid to achieve all these things. Get out of the cycle .

[quote="Gvest"][quote="random"]To me virtue signalling is when someone loudly shouts about something without actually doing anything about it. Like when everyone blathers on about supporting the troops and yet somehow that never translates into decent medical care for disabled veterans, or mental health care to help the hordes of veterans that can't function after going to war and end up on the streets, or decent pensions and other benefits.[/quote]You misunderstand, we support troops, not vets. The more people muster out, the fewer troops we have, so why would we ever incentivize it? Let's send them care packages, like African children, they are already stuck in the middle of the desert, so what's the big difference? Let's keep them in war zones, where their inability to sleep is a valuable skill instead of a disorder. But once they are not fit for duty, what use are they to us- let them commit suicides, it will save everyone money in the long run.

P.S. Err... that got a little dark there. But basically true.[/quote]

I understand you got satirical there but still lemme respond as if serious :P mkay

We actually have troops around us, every day, in a sort of potential warzone. They are the police force. They deal with a completely different world than us even if we are in the same local area. We have enough incentive to support them because each of them work in a district/city/nation/whatever with a productive economy, that productive economy in turn produces a cut of taxes that turn into health benefits and pension for them.Troops sent out to modern war today is like they are policing that particular warzone, but war is a huge cash sink for us, with very little payout. Why do we do it? It seems to me that we are slowly attempting to conquer the world (with the collusion of some other world superpowers), and that , that is a push for globalization, a one world government, etc. As the nation in the world with the most powerful military if you believe that stuff is true it should be obvious the US is the key military component to that plan mkay :geek2:

So why are our vets not taken care of? Why is the VA a corrupt and messed up system? Instead of being an individual nation with individual rights we are slowly being transformed into the police HQ district of the world, except many of the places we are policing are not actually producing a great economy/ return in investment to support those vets at the moment. In fact we destabilize them, so that we can divide and conquer. We either go into the red a bit by helping vets from our own pocket for now or just callously ignore them, as you satirically suggested.

But that would be wrong, and not only wrong but put off anyone with a brain in the generations afterward from actually enlisting. Only lower IQ troops will enlist voluntarily, because someone with a higher IQ will figure out , wait, if I get hurt or have PTSD this military will not help me out D: And in turn that makes the situation take longer to stabilize again because the lower IQ troops will make stupid mistakes.

In the long run, doing the decent thing actually saves us money in the long run. It could potentially produce so much wealth apart from money in natural resources, human resources, technology, brain power, etc. that in the generations forward a lot of problems won't be an issue anymore.

But we probably won't do that, because so many of us are stupid, and get to the top of the ladder by not playing fair. So many of us have callous attitudes in a serious way, not the satirical make fun way you were using, because they are out of touch with real people and the real world. This could potentially lead us down to an endless spiral of endless war, because when people are not being treated decently enough they will always fight for freedom and better things.

Also, there is so much more that can be done for african children than send them care packages once in a while. Start businesses in actual africa. We have greenhouses, there are plants such as the breadfruit that grow in the desert already. 3 generations ago South Africa (a nation in africa, the continent) had 100x less population than it did now, but the dutch settlers in africa built the biggest hospital in the world, there, in south africa. It lowered the infant mortality rate, as a result millions of people were born in the next 3 generations.

When you think of starving people, or suffering people from now on don't just give them a crust of bread or a dollar every week. Do that and think of how you can get them farms, give them hospitals, give them jobs, education, better technology. Think really really big.

All I can do is write to try to help spread those ideas but you, and some of you on the forums are really fucking smart, probably have access to your youth, probably have education in science, engineering, business, law, whatever, you can actually do a little something more solid to achieve all these things. Get out of the cycle . :)

You can't get rid of every single mean thing someone has said on the internet, but you can deal with it with humor.

I can believe, without evidence, that that accusation has been brought against zach more than once. Hell, it has crossed MY mind once or twice. Does promoting equal representation in art actually count as virtuous? Or is it something that each individual artist should be able to choose to do or not do, following their own freedom of expression.

As a minority living in a country that has a majority white population, I just don't feel the need for equal representation in art. It's the last of my concerns. But if Zach Weinersmith wants to do that, he's free to. That should be his number one defense any time it's ever brought up again and he should be able to stop feeling bitter about it, rise above it, it is such a minor thing, do not let it ruin your day.

Besides, I'm a fan of yaoi. I appreciate the random gay couples (but secretly wish they were sexier)

You can't get rid of every single mean thing someone has said on the internet, but you can deal with it with humor.

I can believe, without evidence, that that accusation has been brought against zach more than once. Hell, it has crossed MY mind once or twice. Does promoting equal representation in art actually count as virtuous? Or is it something that each individual artist should be able to choose to do or not do, following their own freedom of expression.

As a minority living in a country that has a majority white population, I just don't feel the need for equal representation in art. It's the last of my concerns. But if Zach Weinersmith wants to do that, he's free to. That should be his number one defense any time it's ever brought up again and he should be able to stop feeling bitter about it, rise above it, it is such a minor thing, do not let it ruin your day.

Besides, I'm a fan of yaoi. I appreciate the random gay couples (but secretly wish they were sexier) :P

random wrote:To me virtue signalling is when someone loudly shouts about something without actually doing anything about it. Like when everyone blathers on about supporting the troops and yet somehow that never translates into decent medical care for disabled veterans, or mental health care to help the hordes of veterans that can't function after going to war and end up on the streets, or decent pensions and other benefits.

You misunderstand, we support troops, not vets. The more people muster out, the fewer troops we have, so why would we ever incentivize it?
Let's send them care packages, like African children, they are already stuck in the middle of the desert, so what's the big difference? Let's keep them in war zones, where their inability to sleep is a valuable skill instead of a disorder. But once they are not fit for duty, what use are they to us- let them commit suicides, it will save everyone money in the long run.

P.S. Err... that got a little dark there. But basically true.

[quote="random"]To me virtue signalling is when someone loudly shouts about something without actually doing anything about it. Like when everyone blathers on about supporting the troops and yet somehow that never translates into decent medical care for disabled veterans, or mental health care to help the hordes of veterans that can't function after going to war and end up on the streets, or decent pensions and other benefits.[/quote]You misunderstand, we support troops, not vets. The more people muster out, the fewer troops we have, so why would we ever incentivize it? Let's send them care packages, like African children, they are already stuck in the middle of the desert, so what's the big difference? Let's keep them in war zones, where their inability to sleep is a valuable skill instead of a disorder. But once they are not fit for duty, what use are they to us- let them commit suicides, it will save everyone money in the long run.

To me virtue signalling is when someone loudly shouts about something without actually doing anything about it. Like when everyone blathers on about supporting the troops and yet somehow that never translates into decent medical care for disabled veterans, or mental health care to help the hordes of veterans that can't function after going to war and end up on the streets, or decent pensions and other benefits.

To me virtue signalling is when someone loudly shouts about something without actually doing anything about it. Like when everyone blathers on about supporting the troops and yet somehow that never translates into decent medical care for disabled veterans, or mental health care to help the hordes of veterans that can't function after going to war and end up on the streets, or decent pensions and other benefits.

Backstory: Believe it or not, Zach has been accused of "virtue signaling" because the gay couple/straight couple ratio in SMBC strips apparently exceeds the ratio observed in the general population.

Yeah, I know.

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/wait-a-sec

[b]Backstory:[/b] Believe it or not, Zach has been accused of "virtue signaling" because the gay couple/straight couple ratio in SMBC strips [i]apparently exceeds the ratio observed in the general population[/i].